


All One Could Ask For

by Aurumite



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Gen, Gore at the beginning, M/M, Unrequited Love, and the brother-sister thing goes for Fred and Lissa as well as Chrom and Lissa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-17
Updated: 2015-02-17
Packaged: 2018-03-13 11:00:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3379097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurumite/pseuds/Aurumite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"He loves you, too. Not in the same way." <br/>Chrom is nearly killed. Frederick blames himself. Lissa grows a little.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All One Could Ask For

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, this is from forever ago. I have no gore filter because I read too much Stephen King as a wee child. Let's just be thankful this doesn't take place in Maine or something.

It had been hours since they'd carried Chrom into her tent, clothes soaked through with dark scarlet, keeping him carefully stretched as they lowered him to her cot so his glistening insides wouldn't spill out of the ragged slash that was once his stomach.

Lissa hadn't vomited, although she wanted to. She did weep, though, even as she kept her bearings and her staff glowed again and again. It was her hand that pulled black thread through a hot needle's eye and pierced his stained skin, sewing him back up like a doll with dripping stuffing. It was her washrag she used to clean him, gently, even though he was too comatose with pain to notice if she'd been gentle or not. It was her knight that was the first to push his way inside the tent when she'd changed out of her bloodied clothes and washed her shaking fingers, dropping to his knees at Chrom's side, mumbling,  _my fault_ s _, my lord_ s _, if only I had_ s.

She was too tired to stop Frederick from hating himself, in that moment. She collapsed onto her stool and stared at the ground for a long while. Chrom's breathing had evened and the bleeding had stopped; the wound would be painful but he would survive it. But what if he hadn't been brought to her in time? She had healed countless scratches of his over the years, but nothing had ever been as bad as this. And the war was supposed to be over. They had killed Gangrel and were on the way back to the capital for Chrom's coronation and wedding. Even Frederick had not expected bandits to ambush them in the mountains.

When the ground made her throat hurt— _Emmeryn, what would you do_ —she looked at Frederick, instead. At least an hour had passed in silence. He sat by the cot, now, his head on the edge of it, broad shoulders raised with tension, dark eyes trained on Chrom's face. Lissa was sure that her brother wouldn't wake up for hours yet. He needed the sleep to heal.

Frederick stayed with her for the rest of the day, only shifting to allow her room when she used her staff on the skin under Chrom's stitches, or changed his bandages, or trickled a little water through his lips. Frederick didn't speak, which was unlike him and only made the tension between her Chrom's breaths thicker.

_Why are you here?_  she wanted to snap.  _There's nothing you can do! And if he takes a turn for the worse, there's nothing I can do either!_  

But she held her tongue.

Occasionally she left: to find herself a snack, to splash her face with water. Once she took a quick nap outside, where it was bright and didn't smell like salve. When she returned, Frederick was always in the same place. After night had fallen, he'd taken Chrom's hand.

He looked like a child, she realized then. She was the one standing in the tent's entrance, working in the dark wee hours, and he was the one huddled by her bed and clinging to her strong, reckless brother. She was taller than him, in that instant, for the first time in her life. She was braver.

She had never seen Frederick afraid of anything. It made her want to reach out and smooth down his hair, call him a nickname he hated, demand, _Why this? Why now? Can't you see he's pulling through?_

"Frederick," she said softly, "you should get some rest."

"I am not leaving," he said, just as quietly.

"There's nothing to be scared of. All we can do for him now is let him sleep."

"Prithee, Lissa, do not tell me to go. I won't."

"Frederick—"

"I  _won't!_ "

Lissa took a step back. He'd never snapped at her like that before.

She studied his hand, white-knuckled over her brother's.

"All right," she whispered, and leaned forward to pet the top of his head like she'd wanted to, just once. "But you know Chrom would be cross with us if he found out we were sticking around like this. You should at least get dinner, right?" 

"If you think it best."

"I think rest is best."

"No. That's too long to be away."

She was silent for a moment, simply watching him watching Chrom. Finally she asked, "How many years?"

When his gaze shot her way she had to finish: "Have you loved him, I mean."

"He's my lord," he said hoarsely. "To love him is natural."

"Stahl and Sully aren't here at his bedside."

He looked away. She decided to leave the issue be: if he knew that she knew, that was enough. Right when she'd turned her back to leave and search for a more substantial meal, he said,

"I am fully aware of what will occur. He has already proposed, and she has agreed, and they will be wed in the capital. I will train his children as I trained him. I just want"—She turned around to face him, heart starting to throb a little—"I just want to keep making sure he is safe, and happy. I can be so content with that. But is it possible?"

"He will always have a place in his life for you," she said. Frederick had a strange relationship to them both: equal parts drill master, servant, brother, nurse, and friend. It wasn't anything conventional, but it also wasn't anything Chrom could just cast aside. Lissa was sure he'd never even want to.

The tightness in Frederick's face eased, just a little. "That is all I could ask for."

"He loves you, too," she offered. "Not in the same way, I mean, but very deeply."

"You've grown so much, Lady Lissa," he said with a small smile. "You always know just what to say."

"Come on, Freddy." She used his nickname to distract him, and it worked, because he was looking at her again. "Let's get something to eat and freshen up and we can come right back, okay?"

"Yes, milady."

She turned to give him the half-second of privacy he needed to kiss her brother's face, if he wanted, since Chrom would not wake and in a few days Frederick would never be able to. But she was sure his lips only touched Chrom's hand, and by the time she left the tent, she heard him following.

**Author's Note:**

> If you read "Halcyon Days" you know why I personally can't ship Fred/Lissa (headcanons! Headcanons everywhere!), but she does admit in their supports that he's her first love, which I think still makes a lot of sense, especially since he's probably the first guy she gets close to that she's not related to and he obviously pays her a ton of attention. Just little!Lissa being "in love" without knowing what love actually is yet because she's a baby, hrnnnnggg why is she always so great. Anyway, I like the idea of her angsting over that for a while, especially if Frederick likes one of the siblings she tries so hard to be like, because that means she eventually comes to grips with her own personality and decides she's gonna do her own thing, and obviously comes out a very strong character for it. TL;DR Lissa is perf.


End file.
